CARBONDALE, Ill. -
After today's final round, the Southern Illinois men's golf team finished ninth out of 12 teams at the Derek Dolenc Invitational in Edwardsville, Ill.

Belmont won the tournament, which was hosted by SIUE at Sunset Hills Country Club, by posting a 2-over par team score. The Salukis, playing in their first tournament of the fall, combined to finish 36-over.

The last time Southern played the course was in 2011, when the team finished in fifth place with a score of 51-over.

"If they told me ahead of time we were going to shoot 36-over, I'd have thought we'd finish higher than ninth," said SIU head coach Leroy Newton. "When we missed the fairways, it cost us. We'll work on keeping the drive in play the next couple days, but we also had some good scores from different people, and that's something to build on."

Playing in his first-career tournament at SIU, junior Wade Thompson shot a team-best 6-over on the 6,645-yard, par-72 course, finishing tied for 16th out of 70 competitors. Teammate Drew Novara, carded an 8-over, while Caleb Harms (10-over) and Steve Souchek (14-over) rounded out the scoring for Southern. Andrew Mitchell, who competed as an independent, recored SIU's best final-round score with a 1-under mark. He tied Souchek overall at 14-over.